December 02, 2004

Christmas Spirit

This is totally irrelevant, but also not worth its own post: Natalie Portman's Fame Audit gives her current fame as Sarah Michelle Gellar and her deserved fame as Sarah Jessica Parker. But Katie Holmes's Fame Audit gives her current fame as Sarah Michelle Gellar and her deserved fame as Natalie Portman! From step 1, Portman = Gellar, so from step 2 ought(Holmes) = Portman = Gellar = Holmes. But I think the Fametrackers are using an unacceptably roundabout way of saying that Katie Holmes should remain exactly as famous as she is. Haven't they heard of the maxim of manner?

It is not acceptable to explain this away by relativizing to time and arguing that Gellar12/2/04 does not necessarily equal Gellar11/7/03, or that Portman12/2/04 does not necessarily equal Portman11/7/03. That would prevent the argument from going through, but it would require that Fame can vary appreciably with time, which we already know to be false.